USPS Registered Mail Package - FOUND!
Zohar
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Have a package which was shipped back Registered Mail/Insured from NGC on 1/22/2014.... still showing the original scan... Supposedly the most secure tier for any courier.
January 23, 2014
Depart USPS Sort Facility
SARASOTA, FL 34230
I have been calling NGC and the USPS. USPS is simply.. the worst. These people answering the phone should not have their job and it amazes me that there is no outrage regarding such a famed service provider. A 3rd world mail courier has better service and systems. What they offer is to lookup tracking number and read off the status which is identical to what I see, nothing more. They have no solutions, promise to research and get back to me and never have.
NGC has opened a claim yet defer to the USPS to investigate. I would have expected some leverage with the Sarasota USPS office, yet this has to go through the conventional process which takes...2-3 weeks. I am told that registered mail is secure and there is a chance that this package is located yet given the USPS personnel involved, I have no faith. We'll wait and see (and pray).
This is a really unpleasant experience, to say the least which has made me fearful of using the service. I now opened up a private Fedex account and insurance. The last thing I need is the USPS insurance claim funds as there are 3 awesome Talers in that package which can not be replaced.
Has anyone experienced something like this?
January 23, 2014
Depart USPS Sort Facility
SARASOTA, FL 34230
I have been calling NGC and the USPS. USPS is simply.. the worst. These people answering the phone should not have their job and it amazes me that there is no outrage regarding such a famed service provider. A 3rd world mail courier has better service and systems. What they offer is to lookup tracking number and read off the status which is identical to what I see, nothing more. They have no solutions, promise to research and get back to me and never have.
NGC has opened a claim yet defer to the USPS to investigate. I would have expected some leverage with the Sarasota USPS office, yet this has to go through the conventional process which takes...2-3 weeks. I am told that registered mail is secure and there is a chance that this package is located yet given the USPS personnel involved, I have no faith. We'll wait and see (and pray).
This is a really unpleasant experience, to say the least which has made me fearful of using the service. I now opened up a private Fedex account and insurance. The last thing I need is the USPS insurance claim funds as there are 3 awesome Talers in that package which can not be replaced.
Has anyone experienced something like this?
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The seller was pretty irritated (at the US postal system, not at me). It looks like I'm headed toward a refund of money months later instead of receiving either the coins I wanted or some sort of explanation as to what happened. I have found this irritating and embarrassing (for the U.S.), without having really lost anything. Zohar, the loss of three high quality Talers is very distressing -- I hope they do find their way home to you somehow.
<< <i>An eBay seller sent me two coins from Germany in late December, which the BundesPost website confirmed using their tracking number. In early January, the package showed up in the USPS system with the same tracking number, suggesting arrival at the USPS International Sorting location in New York. Weeks pass and the coins do not show up at my address (meanwhile about 6 other international registered letters do arrive, all sent after the German one, no problems and no delays) -- I think nothing of it, but after a couple of more weeks I contacted USPS customer service and they also simply parrotted back to me what the website tracking information was and indicated there is nothing more they could do. (They did suggest that I, rather than Customer Service, check with my local post office, for which nobody could provide a telephone number -- I took the time to go down on a Saturday and naturally they could tell me nothing either.) Nobody within USPS can tell me if things might be held up in customs, returned to sender due to a faulty address, or anything more than what the tracking website provides which after 7+ weeks is nothing.
The seller was pretty irritated (at the US postal system, not at me). It looks like I'm headed toward a refund of money months later instead of receiving either the coins I wanted or some sort of explanation as to what happened. I have found this irritating and embarrassing (for the U.S.), without having really lost anything. Zohar, the loss of three high quality Talers is very distressing -- I hope they do find their way home to you somehow. >>
FYI I have had nothing but missing packages go missing when they are sent from germany. As soon as it hits u.s. customs, they have gone MIA. Ive dealt with this for a year now and I no longer buy coins from germany. I dont care how nice the coin is or if its a deal.
Something is truly going on with germany/customs. Every other country I order from, they arrive, but germany, NO!
I once had a problem with a lost delivery from England; $100 dollars, about, down the drain, but I have never had a problem from elsewhere in Europe, including Germany. Sometimes a package has taken a month or so, but there was delivery.
Right now, however, a packet from South Africa, sent registered, is in limbo. After about one month, it ended up in New York customs last weekend. It has not been tracked further and I still am waiting.
DPOTD
as well over the past year.
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edited to add... the post office has an internal system of tracking registered mail that is not accessable to customers online or by phone. You might try going to your local post office and asking for help. From the USPS website:
Registered Mail is the most secure USPS® mail service (protected by safes, cages, sealed containers, locks and keys). In addition, please note the following:
A system of receipts is used to monitor the movement of mail from the point of acceptance to delivery.
Access to these receipts is not readily available and can only be done only by initiating a claim form (not via phone service).
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FWIW I have heard of Registered parcels that have arrived after a few months of bothersome anxiety.
All I'm saying ... s#it happens and humans make errors ...
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So it finally made it, long after the seller had refunded my money (I sent the coin back to him).
Yours being Registered gives me a little more hope that it will be tracked down. I hope that like my situation, it's just a case of it getting stuck somewhere.
So don't despair yet, and don't give up on lighting a fire beneath their buttocks. They want you to just give up, probably. I went through this runaround once (again, with an Insured, not Registered) package, and ended up eating it in the end, which still sticks in my craw 20 years later.
PS- the item I linked to above (which was MIA for something like 5 months), similarly showed the initial scan in the tracking, and then... nothing. Just like your Registered package seems to be doing.
So it's gotten hung up somewhere between Point A and Point B. And if you chew enough arses long enough, hopefully it will be found.
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I truly hope this is a case of misplaced and not totally lost Zohar.
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I never once used the phone or talked to anyone in person, just used the online complaint system. It wasn't even a highly insured/valuable package (it was mostly just sentimental stuff I didn't want the TSA or military movers to lose), so it wasn't like it was a high value issue.
In any case, I'll try and hunt my emails down (if I still have them) but try the USPS site for the online complaint.
Cathy
edited to add, I think I deleted a lot of the emails, but I think I must have used a military link...I'll keep checking.
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<< <i>Thanks Nick and I do think these employees they hire today have no clue about service and live under a false sense of job security. Not only is the USPS broke but most of their staff will never find alternative jobs. It doesn't take much to be courteous and resourceful to the public who funds their business. >>
Some of the older employees at my local PO are definitely "old fashioned" - stating they work for the United States Postal SERVICE with emphasis on the latter. The great thing about them is that they continue on despite even the local postmaster(she is a reincarnated Nazi or something). Obviously they are tenured and know it, so they get away with spending half an hour sifting through tubs of mail looking for my mail for me. I take them boxes of candy as a reward for their great effort. Too bad there are not many like them anymore in other post offices.
One thing I always preferred is Fedex so thats a plus for our hosts - never missed a 2 day ship from Cali - while I've had a few losses from USPS over the years nothing that was registered so I hope yours is just a fluke.
I also think you should dunk all your ats plastic and switch teams
-Dan
I am ranting now due to the lost item, yet my sentiment has been there for many years regarding the decline in service. I now use Fedex and insurance through the ANA's Shipandinsure.com to handle shipments.
Thanks for listening in on my rant. If this package does show up, it will attest to Registered mail being traceable.
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My sets: [280+ horse coins] :: [France Sowers] :: [Colorful world copper] :: [Beautiful world coins]
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The first two are not found this nice for the type.
1763KB HUNGARY DAV-1132 TALER MS 63
1855A AUSTRIA TALER MS 65
1788 AUSTRIA BATTHYANI TALER AU 58
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<< <i>My sense is that in any metro area USPS offices you get more attitude than in smaller communities where it is more relationship driven >>
Oh, I dunno. My 1994 bitter experience I alluded to was with the Swannanoa, NC post office. The kind of place that closes when the guy goes out to lunch. (We locals didn't call it "Swannanowhere" for nothin'.)
So much for "local relationships". Around that time, I heard somebody found a full mailbag in the Swannanoa River. If that was true, I guess somebody didn't feel like finishing his route that day and decided to lighten his load. My coins weren't in that bag (I don't think), but it makes you wonder.
It is my sincere hope that USPS eventually delivers them to you.
At any rate, do feel for you and hope that it gets resolved soon! Not much worse for a collector than catching a big fish only to have it get lost in transit.
I feel miserable to say the least. Feel like I have been robbed. These are top end coins. I hope the payment process accelerates as a result of the USPS's acknowledgement of the loss.
NGC's handling has been professional. In particular, Scott Schechter, who is a class act.
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<< <i>I feel miserable to say the least. >>
Sorry, Z.
<< <i>Feel like I have been robbed. >>
Well, uh... yeah? You have been.
Sux.
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Z - can you post the three missing pieces - maybe someone will recognize it (eventually) or that we can cry together over the loss.
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BTW, I just sent a major grouping of coins via registered mail. Knowing of this issue with Zohar has made me nervous. I've been checking my iPhone app twice daily. Mailed it Saturday morning from local PO in central NJ. On Monday early afternoon, it was at the central sorting facility in central NJ.
I'm surprised I still have finger nails remaining...
Not to hijack this thread, but for anyone here who is religious, please put in a good word to your deity of choice to have this shipment arrive at its intended destination without incident. And, Zohar's too (without further incident).
EVP
How does one get a hater to stop hating?
I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com
Not religious yet will pray for the package to make it. I am sure it will.
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They are very secretive about disclosing the reasons - perhaps internal investigation perhaps criminal. The fact they are rushing to pay indicates that its clear cut to them that the package can not be found... "fell of the truck perhaps". Per NGC no other packages had gone missing during that day. These were sent during the bad weather so perhaps its a misrouted (at best) or stolen (worst).
Losses happen, as painful as this one is, yet the USPS service leaves the consumer in a helpless state. These folks have no clue about service. If you could fire and replace them I am sure the vibe would change. Unlike most of us, they are afforded job security and no accountability for their action.
I will focus on getting my funds back and hopefully finding other pieces which are as much of a challenge as funding them.
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I'm curious, lets say you did see them on e-bay (or on someones site for sale)...if the insurance is paid do you have any recourse to file a police report and try to get them back as stolen property? Or, is the USPS now the new owner? Can they even be reported as stolen if the postal service isn't doing anything other than paying for a loss? I suppose it could have been a wrecked mail truck rather than a theft that made them pay out...
They look like awesome coins too.
Cathy
Zohar, those MS coins look amazing. Must feel like salt in the wound. But at least we have them as evidence to what was in the package. Is USPS paying for the appraised value of the graded coins? or the raw prices? I think it should be the slabbed values.
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Now getting paid from the USPS... thats a whole new process.
Life goes on, and this is just one bump in the road.
Thanks all.
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Stinks is an understatement, especially the MS-65 piece which is as PL as they get.
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I just saw a scan showing package movement. There is hope after 6 weeks!
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<< <i>UPDATE! Scott Schechter, NGC team and the local Sarasota USPS office worked diligently trying to force the USPS to trace. Apparently a disconnect between the various regional offices. This morning I learn the package did make it to JFK and that there is hope. I really appreciate the personal touch by the NGC team as I am a relatively small submitter. I am grateful.
I just saw a scan showing package movement. There is hope after 6 weeks! >>
Glad to know the package is on the move. Best of luck and hope you get it soon.
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